The Winnipeg Jets had a flair for the dramatic on Friday night, as they held their home opener in front of 14,500+ fans at Canada Life Centre. Those fans didn’t have much to cheer about until the final minutes of the game, when the roof nearly blew off the building with a 2-1 OT win over the Hawks.
Mark Scheifele’s 299th and 300th career goals make the difference
The Jets’ offensive output was slim-to-none through the first ~58 minutes of tonight’s game until the Winnipeg net was empty late, and Mark Scheifele scored his 299th career goal to tie it.
For an encore, he hopped onto the ice in overtime and deflected home his 300th career NHL goal. Scott Arniel had nothing but good words to say about Scheifele hitting that impressive milestone.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“Those are big milestones… 300 goals is a lot of goals in this league,” Arniel said about his top centre. “To see that enthusiasm… anytime those guys can that it in that fashion, to tie a game late and win it in overtime, he’ll remember those goals, 299 and 300, I’m sure”
Mark Scheifele is the second player in the Winnipeg Jets’ 1.0 or 2.0 history to score 300 goals in a Jets uniform. The only other player to hit 300+ goals as a Jet is none other than the player he grew up idolizing, Dale Hawerchuk.
From being the first-ever draft pick of the 2.0 era to signing multiple long-term contracts with the team, it was a nice moment for Scheifele, who attributed the milestone to the players around him.
“It was pretty humbling to think about,” Scheifele said about the 300-goal milestone. “It’s pretty wild, I’m very thankful for the guys I’ve played with, I’ve been lucky enough to play with some very good players, and it’s all thanks to them.”
Connor Hellebuyck contributed many timely saves
Connor Hellebuyck has begun the season with a .982 SV% through two games and allowed just one goal on 26 shots in tonight’s contest.
The two-time Vezina Trophy winner came up huge with several saves late in this game, and none bigger than the grand larceny off of Nick Foligno with 11:00 minutes left. That’s a grade-A chance that Hellebuyck stops, keeping it a one-goal game and keeping hope alive for the Jets in a moment that surely would’ve ended this contest.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“He had to make some big stops for us, and that’s what he does,” Arniel said about his star goaltender post-game. “He knows when games are tight like that, he has to make that one more save to keep us in it, and that’s what he did tonight, again.”
Ehlers-Namestnikov-Perfetti line continues its slow start
Before the game, I asked Scott Arniel about that line’s performance in Edmonton. “Yeah, they’re still trying to find themselves,” Arniel said Friday morning. “They haven’t had the sort of time together as a line like some of the other lines had through camp. But there’s things that I liked there, there were some opportunities there. They’re building they know it when you talk to them, the three of them know they can do a little bit more.”
Ehlers assisted on Scheifele’s game-tying goal, so it wasn’t all bad for those three players. Arniel admitted after the game that he liked Ehlers’ third period more than his first two, understandably so.
“I don’t totally agree with your view on our line to start,” Ehlers said after the game when asked about their struggles. “We had a lot of good chances. We’re trying to find our way. Our last couple of games together haven’t been good but we took a step in the right direction.”
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
That trio was out-chanced 4-3 at five-on-five according to natural stat trick, along with being out-shot-attempted 11-5 and controlling 25.99% of the expected goals.
Late in the third period, Ehlers was moved to play alongside Lowry and Appleton, and Perfetti found himself on the bench with under five minutes to go. It’s no secret that Perfetti was going to need some extra time to ramp up after missing a week of training camp, but as the Jets showed tonight, that secondary scoring line will have to find their groove over the next couple of games.
Up next:
As ugly as it may have been, the Jets are 2-0 on the young season and welcome a bitter rival to Canada Life Centre on Sunday, the Minnesota Wild. There are plenty of storylines to watch for heading into Sunday’s contest, and if history has told us anything, it’s that there will be even more storylines following a matchup against the Wild.
